We are pleased to announce that the new Denver Air Connection website went live on September 19, 2019.

The Critical Mission team has been working closely with all departments to incorporate new content, images and organizational information which is relevant to both consumers and potential partners. We thank everyone who has assisted us and for their patience during this process.
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This launch was followed by a second website dedicated to Key Lime Air. These sites are the first big steps in integrating the company's brand and messaging. Currently Wikipedia is being updated and new online and printed materials for consumers and recruiting are being created as well.

These websites are “organic” - we will constantly update content and make changes as needed. 

We urge you to share this new link with friends, family and on your social media feeds. 

​No one says it more eloquently than nationally syndicated columnist Dave Barry:
“If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved and never will achieve its full potential that word would be ‘meetings’.”
It’s tough to argue with him. If you’re like most managers, you’ll spend 8 to 10 hours each week in meetings. In fact, according to a University of Arizona study, there are more than 11 million formal meetings each day, totaling a staggering three billion a year.
Yet in study after study, workers cite meetings as one of the most unproductive and frustrating parts of their jobs. Wasting almost $40-billion each year, it’s no wonder that Industry Week Magazine called meetings “The Great White Collar Crime.” But you don’t have to be a victim.
Listed below are seven simple steps you can take to make meetings more productive and, heaven forbid, even fun. I encourage you to share these tips with others on your team. Working together, you can be the business equivalent of a “neighborhood watch program,” stamping out this insidious crime, one meeting at a time.

1. Determine if a meeting is really necessary. Will a few phone calls or face-to-face discussions accomplish the same thing? One client of mine uses her company’s mission and values as a measuring stick. If she can’t relate the purpose of the proposed meeting to company goals, she will cancel it.
2. Have an agenda. A no-brainer you say? Yes, but amazingly enough, more than 60 percent of meetings do not have prepared agendas. This simple step can cut unproductive meeting time by up to 80 percent. Your agenda should be specific, not vague. For example, “HR Project” isn’t as effective as “Determine New Hire information needs for  delivery method New Hire Manual Project.” And be sure to distribute your agenda ahead of time with the appropriate background information.
3. Invite only those who will contribute to your success. What’s more important? Hurting someone’s feelings or achieving the success of your project? The fewer people involved, the more productive the meeting. Likewise, don’t feel obligated to go to meetings just because you were invited. Ask yourself, “Could I spend this time on something more important?” If the answer is “yes,” suggest someone from your team to represent you.
4. Communicate your objectives and desired outcomes. Everyone in the room should know, in advance, the purpose of the meeting, why they were invited, and what they are expected to contribute.
5. Start on time. “Don’t make exceptions,” recommends Harold Taylor, a Time Consulting firm. “If someone arrives late, explain to him or her that you are now on item two or whatever. Don’t apologize for starting on time and resist the temptation to summarize the progress to date for every late arrival. If they ask, tell them you’ll update them after the meeting.”
6. Stay focused. Determine time limits for each topic and stick to them. If something comes up that’s not on the agenda, reschedule it for discussion at another time. Taylor suggests placing priority items that will generate the least discussion at the beginning of the agenda, while saving contentious items to the end.
7. Summarize and assign responsibility. Before adjourning, summarize the action items, who is responsible for each, and in what timeframe. Schedule the next meeting, but only if one is really necessary.

We recently began working on a corporate communications project for an airline to determine how to align the brand the owners want to convey with a new internal communications ecosystem and external communications infrastructure that allows them to tell their story and build a culture to delver it.

I remembered reading in Ken Mosesian's book, The Power of Promise, that brand is emotional and experiential.  He said, "(E)ven though numbers are emotionless, people are not, particularly when it comes to promises kept and promises broken."  He went on to reference the Price Waterhouse Coopers 2018 survey where one-third of all global consumers said they would leave a brand they loved after one bad experience.  The study found three that that would stop customers from doing business with a brand:

1. lack of trust in the company
2. unfriendly service, and
3. bad employee attitude

This simple realty makes it essential to understand what promise the airline is making to its customers, to declare it an to delver it in every detail.  there is the story of the coffee stain on the tray table that always circulates when discussing airline experiences.  It is not just a coffee stain.  The human response to a the coffee stain on a tray table triggers a negative experience feedback that turns the coffee stain in a question of aircraft maintenance.  Then the customer is questioning the airworthiness because if they can't keep the cabin in order what is the condition of the aircraft?  Then the little negative feedback turns to the pilots.  With a dirty cabin and maybe an non-airworthy aircraft maybe they don;t have the best pilots.  The customer walks away judging the entire company based upon the negative experience they had because of a coffee stain. The passenger does not fly with the airline again and passes on the negative emotional state to other potential customers thinking about traveling on that airline.  All because one person with a bad attitude did not complete their tasks and wipe a coffee stain off a tray table.

It's impossible to deliver on the details without an employee group that understands and engages in the company mission, vision and purpose which form the company culture.  To this end, that requires the company to take the time to define its culture and provide a community in which that culture can flourish.

You make a experiential promise with your brand and your employees are given a chance to keep that promise every time they interact with a customer.  So, the details really do matter.